Prancer trails vines from its antlers during several days AWOL in 1963 from its home on a Schofield deer farm, raising havoc in the Wausau area until captured in a midnight battle.

1963: AWOL deer battles to stay free

"Prancer," the AWOL deer, was safely returned to its home at the Charles Huckbody deer farm in rural Schofield after cavorting around the Wausau area for several days in autumn 1963 and putting up a fight to retain its freedom, according to the Oct. 23 edition of the Wausau Daily Record-Herald that year.

Warden Harry Borner had been tracking the deer and even tried feeding Prancer food laced with tranquilizers, but the savvy animal turned up its nose and turned tail again.

Borner and police officers finally caught up to Prancer after midnight on a Saturday while the animal was enjoying a flower garden behind a thick hedge near Fifth and Division streets. That was when the officers called on Larry Detjens, 19, of Sherman Street in Wausau, a horseman who had been practicing with a lariat for about two years.

"We shined lights into Prancer's eyes as Larry crept up on him behind the hedge. He tossed his lasso and dropped it on his antlers," Borner told a reporter. "All hell broke loose. That deer went straight up in the air."

The hedge prevented the deer from attacking Detjens, who tried snubbing the rope on a birdhouse pole. The pole snapped.

"For a few moments he was dragging Larry across the ground. I dropped a rope over his antlers so we could keep the deer from charging," Borner continued. He snubbed the rope on a tree, and the deer went airborne again. "When he came down on his back, all four feet were kicking. Larry dropped another lasso over Prancer's hind legs."

Thusly trussed, Prancer received "a couple shots to quiet him" from a veterinarian. And the crew transported the reindeer cousin back to Huckbody's farm.

Despite the late hour, the ruckus raised a large crowd. "The women in the crowd were on the side of the deer," Borner said. "They were cheering him on."

The newspaper reported this was Detjens' "first encounter with an unwilling subject," and he and Borner had the rope-burned hands to prove their involvement in the midnight battle.

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Dateline Wausau: AWOL deer causes midnight ruckus in 1963

'Prancer,' the AWOL deer, was safely returned to its home at the Charles Huckbody deer farm in rural Schofield after cavorting around the Wausau area for several days in autumn 1963 and putting up a

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